The Catalyst for Impact Fund has invested £250,000 in People Know How over a 5 year period to support the development of social mobility in Scotland.
The Catalyst for Impact Fund supports the development of a selected group of ambitious charities and social enterprises in Scotland that focus on aspects of social mobility in Scotland. People Know How has been selected as one such charity, delivering social mobility through digital inclusion across Scotland.
Over the next five years the fund will allow us to develop our capacity and expand towards national delivery, supporting us to achieve our new strategy and facilitating the long-term growth of our services and campaigns. In the run up to the launch of our partnership, we have already started drawing on the opportunities offered to us through the fund, including working with The Lens as part of the development of our new Strategic Plan.
From expanding our national helpline, to kickstarting action-research projects, to fuelling our Connect Four programme and cross-sectoral collaboration, we’re excited to work with Catalyst for Impact to improve digital inclusion and reduce data poverty over the next five years.
Helpline
One of the projects that Catalyst for Impact will support us to grow is our Helpline, a project initiated as part of the Connecting Scotland programme during the pandemic. Currently, the helpline supports individuals across Scotland who have received a Connecting Scotland device with setup and troubleshooting. With support from Catalyst for Impact, we will expand this into a broader national digital support helpline, helping everyone in Scotland get online.
Connect Four
Our Connect Four programme focuses on driving social innovation through collaboration across the third, public, academic and business sectors. Through events, networking, research and resource sharing, we aim to bring together representatives from different sectors to share learning and identify solutions to social issues.
With support from Catalyst for Impact Connect Four will commission action research projects towards affecting social change. In doing so we will undertake research evaluating the outcomes of our projects and services, allowing us to develop models of practice that can be applied throughout Scotland. In combination with our current action-research project on school transitions with the University of Edinburgh, this body of work will now also delve into digital inclusion and data poverty.
With increased capacity for research comes increased opportunities to share our learning. Our Connect Four events provide both People Know How and organisations and individuals from across the four sectors with a platform to share learning, ideas and collaborate towards social innovation. We will be hosting even more Connect Four events over the next year, leading on from our Connect Four: Digital Inclusion event which we hosted during the pandemic, and developing a series around data poverty.
Data poverty
Having identified data poverty as the biggest obstacle to digital inclusion in our Connect Four event in 2020, we have since launched our Connectivity Now campaign. The campaign outlines three key actions to eradicate data poverty in Scotland, and is asking organisations, community groups and individuals to pledge their support and join us in lobbying the government to implement these actions.
The research around connectivity and data poverty is constantly evolving, particularly as we come out of the pandemic. We’re always looking at the latest findings, research and government announcements, as well as undertaking research of our own on all aspects of digital inclusion and data poverty. This is why we will be co-commissioning a longitudinal study on the effects of high-speed broadband for individuals who previously experienced digital exclusion.
“People Know How impressed us with their innovative solutions and approach in bringing people together to tackle important issues, such as the barriers caused by data poverty. Their ambition, wider awareness and ability to reach into communities gave us the confidence that they have the potential to create lasting change.”
The year ahead
We’re proud to be working with Catalyst for Impact over the next five years to implement these aims and many more, towards increasing digital inclusion and ending data poverty in Scotland.